IN Business School News

The programme, which will start in September, has a different focus from most leadership training, says Colin Carnall, director of executive education at Cass. “A lot of what passes as leadership is too focused on personality and individual performance,” he says. “Actual leadership is about judgement.”

The MSc in Leadership will be influenced by the sort of decision-making frameworks that are taught at Sandhurst, says Stephen Bennett, chief executive of IDG, which has been partners with Sandhurst for the past 12 years. One study trip, for example, will be to the battle fields of Normandy, says Mr Carnall. “It puts you in the position where people had to make major decisions.”

Unlike a traditional Executive MBA programme, the degree will also teach the business knowledge needed for managers destined for the corporate board. And the teaching style will depend on practical exercises - or “experiential” learning - rather than the more academic teaching style of traditional MBA programmes.

Business students: MBA students from business schools around the globe blog their experiences

The course will depend on each participant assessing themselves and their peers across a range of skills, or competencies, with the help of academics from the teaching organisations involved.

The two-year part-time course will be taught partly at Cass in the City and partly at Sandhurst, the British Army’s leadership academy in Surrey. There will be 18 workshops, each of two days in length, taught over a period of two years. The initial plan is for the programme to be run with a consortium of companies, with each company sending between four and six of its senior managers to each intake of up to 24 participants.

In spite of its military overtones, the programme designers hope to attract an equal number of men and women to the programme. “It’s not just for boys,” says Mr Carnall. “The programme will have failed if that happens.”